Ex-Health chief Garin slammed for poor planning in BHS project

Former Health Chief Janette Garin.

Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, July 5)— Former Department of Health (DOH) Secretary Janette Garin stressed that there were no irregularities in the implementation of the Barangay Health Stations (BHS) project, which cost ₱8.1 billion.

In a Senate probe by the health committee on Wednesday, Health Secretary Francisco Duque III and his predecessor Paulyn Ubial lamented the "poor planning" of Garin as head of the development, after the Commission on Audit discovered that a number of schools did not have functioning health units.

Duque added that an executive committee he had formed also found some irregularities after investigating the project.

"I really think it just points to one thing: it's poor planning right from the very start," said the Health Secretary. "We're trying to fix all the mess because the planning was just, I think, was very deficient. It was really very defective to begin with."

During the hearing, it was said that only 218 Barangay Health Stations were constructed since the J.Bros Construction Corporation started handling the job in 2016.

However, the contractor noted that the project already had 429 health stations up, and that the department had yet to pay ₱2.9 billion for the construction.

Julieanne Jorge, Board of Directors member of the J.Bros Construction Corporation, pointed at the DOH for their failure to complete the designated units for the government project.

"When we go to the area, we don't know that they didn't know that the school didn't know about the project," said Jorge. "Sometimes the sites are not even available. There's no space in the school."

Garin denied the alleged anomalies, saying that the DOH fairly allocated the funds it got from the Miscellaneous Personnel Benefits Fund (MPBF) savings. The MPBF was later on revealed to be the same source for the Dengvaxia budget.

Garin added that she had nothing to do with the shortcomings of the contractor, as the project extended beyond her term and was now under the Duterte administration.